


down to the second

by WonderTwinC



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-20
Updated: 2017-06-23
Packaged: 2018-08-16 06:29:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8091250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WonderTwinC/pseuds/WonderTwinC
Summary: Right down to the minute, right down to the second. I can feel my every breath unfold. [a series of moments in the life of Nyssa Al Ghul]





	1. broken

Her arm is the first bone that she ever breaks. 

She is five and training with her father and despite knowing what she needs to do, how she needs to move, she is not fast enough to evade his quick strikes. Ra’s is relentless in his efforts, striking over and over until Nyssa feels a burn in her arms and her hands tremble. Her small sword flies from her aching fingers when he delivers a harsh blow that sends her reeling back and to the stone floor beneath them. 

Her right arm breaks her fall and the bone running between her wrist and elbow snaps in the process. 

The pain is unbearable, enough to make her vision blacken around the corners, but she doesn’t cry.  
  
Even at the tender age of five, Nyssa knows better. 


	2. change

“She is changing you,” Ra’s observes quietly, staring at her from the head of their dinner table. Nyssa takes a measured bite of food, swallowing carefully before she raises her head. Her father is staring at her, his fingers steepled before him in a pose that radiates strength and power.

For a moment it’s as though he is looking through her, but when she blinks the illusion is shattered. Her father is dangerous, she knows, but Sara has taught her that his hold is nothing more than a mere illusion.

She can break free.   



	3. snow

The loose snowball hits her in the back of the neck, exploding into a fine glittering spray of ice before it slides down the collar of her jacket. 

"You did not just fucking do that." Sara wheels around to stare open-mouthed at her girlfriend. The disbelief on her face is priceless. 

Nyssa grins, another snowball already formed between her gloved fingers. Her aim is impeccable and the second snowball smacks Sara in the chest and melts down the front of her coat. 

They end up flinging loose snow at each other, leaving trails of ice in the air. Sara’s laughter echoes in the open field when she tackles Nyssa into a snowdrift. She grins down at Nyssa with reddened cheeks, flakes of snow settling in her hair as their lips press together in a slow, chilling kiss. Warmth pools low in Nyssa’s gut, warming her through until she forgets the cold.


	4. tough

Nyssa finds it so very fascinating (and frustrating) that the men of this world immediately take in her appearance and label her as ‘weak’ because she is female. Her world has never been so very narrow, growing up in Nanda Parbat where the only thing that defines a person as weak or strong is their will to live and their will to fight. 

Her skin crawls when the pigs of the world try to press in close to her, their breath often tainted with spirits as they whisper crude sentiments about what they wish to do to a ‘pretty girl’ like her. Defiance always wells up within her chest because she is Nyssa Al Ghul, daughter of Ra’s Al Ghul, Heir to the Demon and she only takes orders from one person in this world.

Then the rage comes, quiet and savage, as it burns its way through her veins.

She feels nothing but pure contentment each and every time their hand shatters within her grasp.


	5. forgive

She is not a forgiving creature by nature. Her father has taught her that the fastest way to be stabbed in the back is to forgive someone who has already betrayed her once. 

Nyssa has watched her father behead men for a simple slip of the tongue. In that regard, she is no innocent herself. 

The men and women under her command see her cold nature as strength and look at her with admiration. 

All but Taer Al-Sahfer, who looks at her with intense curiosity and broad smiles. Sara is a peculiar woman, unlike any other that Nyssa has encountered. 

In the end she falls. 

She falls so devastatingly hard for her little yellow bird that she shouldn't be surprised when she hits the ground and shatters. 

But she does, and she is, left without a single utterance of goodbye when her Canary flees from Nanda Parbat in the dark of night. 

And her father has always told her that forgiveness is a weakness, that forgiveness is how you end up with a knife in your back, but Nyssa thinks that if it were Sara wielding the blade then perhaps it would be worth it. 


End file.
